Horror is one of the most reliable genres in all of cinema, and it can be morphed into just about anything. For example, in 2024, audiences were treated to a wide array of options. These included disturbing character studies such as those found in Nosferatu and The Substance, and scary thrillers that exist for a good time, such as Abigail and Alien: Romulus. The Monkey, the latest film from Osgood Perkins, is different from all of those, as it is an ultraviolent comedy more than anything else, telling the story of twin brothers, named Hal and Bill, who end up encountering a cursed toy monkey that previously belonged to their father. This results in a series of random deaths that happen around them when the monkey is played with, leading to a journey that will change them for the next few decades, culminating years later with the reemergence of the monkey.
When looking at Perkins’ previous films, most of them are very moody and subdued, focused on building a sense of dread. Former SNU student and noted movie aficionado Noah Terry, expresses that he was “already a fan of his previous work,” such as “his first directorial outing, The Blackcoat’s Daughter,” and Longlegs, which was one of his favorites of last year. The Monkey is much different due to its less overt style, but also its absurd, pitch-black sense of humor. Perkins does a great job of building the absurdity with each victim of the monkey’s wrath, and every demise is very well-timed to achieve both shock and humor. Each individual setup and kill is a wonderfully deranged punchline, but the film does not have much escalation with the deaths, leading into what I think is the biggest problem of the film, which is its surprising lack of structure. Since this is based on a short story, they had to expand it, but the expansion made it feel looser and more padded than it should have, and the amount of actual story points within the narrative is rather low. This feels like an amazing hour of television that was stretched thirty minutes longer to be feature-length, resulting in a series of entertaining vignettes that do not have a tight structure or a growing sense of peril for the characters.
Even though I have some issues with the film, it is certainly worth watching for the humor and the acting. I especially want to give both Christian Convery and Theo James a lot of credit for their performances as the twins. Child actors can be tricky sometimes, and their performances may not be as fully formed for obvious reasons, but Convery does a very nice job of differentiating Hal and Bill in his performances, making it clear that these are two distinct people who are going through a lot of trauma. This leaves James to take that setup and run with it, tracking their wildly diverging life paths in a remarkably well-observed and funny manner. He is arguably most well-known for his role as Four in the Divergent film series, but I hope this gets him more high-profile work, as he shows a lot of range in what is one of my favorite performances. Perkins also peppers the film with a supporting cast that expertly understands the assignment, including Tatiana Maslany as the twins’ mother, Elijah Wood as the new stepdad of James’ son, and Rohan Campbell as a teenage idiot. Everyone is completely locked into the tone that Perkins is going for, and the cast members are a big reason why this works as well.
The Monkey is certainly not a film for everyone, but those who have a darker sense of humor and enjoy the horror genre will likely find this to be up their alley. When talking to SNU student Ainsley Looby, she states that she thought the movie was “really well done.” Looby liked it so much that she saw it twice, with “all the foreshadowing” being something that really stood out to her.
Thanks to moviegoers like Terry and Looby, the film already appears to be a sleeper hit, making double its budget in the first weekend. This means that audiences are always ready for horror films, and The Monkey will give them something dark and demented but undeniably entertaining and funny.
Photo by: Jacob Mash